


our corner of the universe

by potstickermaster



Series: song of the open road [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, i don't fucking know what this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 13:37:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14812373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potstickermaster/pseuds/potstickermaster
Summary: Lena chews on her lip for a moment, then sighs and ducks her head before looking up at Kara. “I just miss you already,” she admits, her voice shy.They stand across each other now; there is a certain familiarity to it, and Kara vaguely remembers the many times they had stood like this, except now, there is an air of bashful delight between them, though Kara isn’t entirely sure if that was new or it has been there the whole time and they have only acknowledged it recently.By Rao’s grace here they are though, however long the road they took—literally and otherwise. Tilting her head, Kara smiles fondly. “Is it less weird if I say I miss you too?”





	our corner of the universe

**Author's Note:**

> this is much shorter than the [roadtrip fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13287564) but i hope it suffices and makes up for the long wait. fair warning though this is probably pretentious and overly sappy/shitty but yeah! 
> 
> written with [this playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX9Z3vMB2b8im) on loop it’s so soft and lovely. title from the song of same name by k.s. rhoads. unbetaed, all mistakes mine, please do tell me what you think? thank you. c:

Being back at National City after several weeks is, in a way, nostalgic. Once Lena’s car is out of view, Kara lets herself notice everything else: The noise of the city, the haste of its people, the temporary reprieve they are given before trouble starts again somewhere. She smiles. She has been gone and nothing had changed; it should _hurt,_ except it doesn’t—there is only relief that she has realized she doesn’t carry the weight of the world on her shoulders, that she is as insignificant like the dust on her clothes, and once more she feels… human.

Like this is how Kara Danvers is supposed to feel.

She smiles to herself as she makes her way into the building. It almost feels like forever ago when she resented the _humanity_ she had learned on her time on Earth, when she felt like all she could be was Supergirl and no one else, and yet here she is. Her mind pictures Lena—curled up in the passenger’s seat, her arm outstretched as she tries to catch the wind, dark hair framing her soft features lit up with warmest of smiles, and looking at Kara like she had nowhere else to be—and Kara finds herself thanking the heartache that she had endured just to get to where she is now.

When Kara walks into her apartment, she lets out a breath of relief that Alex made sure to keep it in tiptop shape—all her plants are alive, her electronics still in their rightful places, and though her fridge and pantry are empty, she still internally thanks Alex for watching her place for her. Dumping her duffel bag on the kitchen table, Kara quickly flies to Alex’s place to check in with her sister.

Alex greets her with a warm hug and _I missed you._

“I missed you too,” Kara breathes out with a laugh. Alex pulls away to look at her.

“You seem…” Alex waves her hands at her. “I don’t know. Something’s different about you.”

Kara’s laugh turns nervous at that and she shrugs. “Did I get a little tan?” She suggests as she walks into Alex’s apartment. A part of her knows what Alex means anyway; she feels _better,_ after all, and she wouldn’t be surprised if she looked less miserable now considering she had been a wreck when she left. Still, she doesn’t think she is ready to tell Alex about the whole… Lena thing yet.

Now that she thinks about it, she doesn’t even know what the _thing_ with Lena is. All they did was kiss—Kara feels a rush in her belly and bites her lip at the memory—and maybe talk about certain developments with regards to how they feel for and about each other, but that was it.

Maybe they can talk about it tonight when Kara comes over.

“I just wanted to check in personally,” Kara continues as she settles on the couch. “And to thank you for keeping my plants alive.”

“Maggie did,” Alex replies with a snort. “If I dared touch your plants, they would die.” Her sister heads to the fridge and offers Kara a drink but the blonde shakes her head.

“I won’t stay long,” she says, avoiding Alex’s gaze, but she doesn’t miss the way her sister raises a curious eyebrow. She doesn’t say anything though, just hums, and instead joins Kara on the couch as she takes a sip of her beer. Kara has a feeling her sister has an idea of what’s happening but she will let Alex speculate  for now.

They catch up over Alex’s bottle of beer after she requested Kara to tell all about her adventures with Lena Luthor, considering she had nothing to share except the usual DEO business. So Kara does, as much as she could within twenty minutes anyway—the amount of time Alex can go through a bottle with thorough control—which meant she was  only able to share a part of their trip, because she still had a date to prepare for. She tells Alex of Disneyland and Las Vegas, shares Lena’s _rad_ skill of rolling dice, and being able to successfully make Lena Luthor, self-proclaimed health nut, eat McDonald’s and get addicted to Swedish Fish.

Kara can’t help her own enthusiasm at reliving their travels. If Alex notices her excitement, she doesn’t say anything. When Kara realizes the time, she tells Alex she has to go work on something. The older Danvers hugs Kara  with a mumble of _see you later,_ and when she pulls away there is a knowing look in her eye that Kara tries to ignore.

Maybe Alex does know more than she let on. Kara will have to deal with that later.

She flies back to her apartment and quickly runs date ideas through her head. On one hand, she does want to let Lena experience the joy of flying as soon as possible—let her feel the same bliss Kara does when she’s one with the wind—but she knows it will take time for Lena to conquer that fear. They have time anyway, Kara knows. There are other possible options too, like a trip to the beach maybe, or a movie, though another part of her wants to _impress._

All of her just really wants to see Lena again.

It’s odd to have such a need, considering she had just seen Lena hours ago—had literally spent weeks with her. Maybe that was why. She  just feels better with Lena around and she _craves_ the woman, who Kara is with her, and how Kara _feels_ around her.

She goes for the simplest but the best thing Kara knows she can do. Wallet in hand, she flies out of her apartment to get what she needs, patrols while doing so, too, and when she gets back, there’s a text from Alex that reminds her to bring Lena to the DEO for her to sign NDAs.

She’ll deal with that later, too.

A little over seven-thirty—after panicking over her last-minute date idea, berating herself for asking Lena out _so soon,_ and grabbing the first decent pair of clothes she can out of her closet—Kara lands on Lena’s apartment balcony, a picnic basket in tow. She fixes her wind-swept hair and pushes her glasses up. The apartment is quiet, and Kara takes the time to look down at her outfit: she is wearing a button-down shirt and dark jeans with oxford shoes she hadn’t worn until tonight. She looks decent, she thinks, a little more dressed up than she had been these past few weeks in just her statement shirts and sneakers. Fixing her collar, Kara rounds the corner to Lena’s home office.

Unsurprisingly, she finds the CEO on her desk, typing away on her laptop. She has at least changed into a comfortable-looking blouse and what Kara thinks are yoga pants—she doesn’t dare look too long. Kara watches her with a fond smile for a few moments before finally making her presence known with a light knock on the nearby bookshelf. Lena jumps slightly and whips her attention to Kara’s direction.

The slow smile that curls on her lips when she realizes who it is makes Kara forget how to breathe. She gingerly lifts her free hand in a wave, and only then does she notice Theodore sitting on the desk, leaning against the desk lamp.

“How’s he settling in?” Kara asks, gesturing to the stuffed bear.

Lena glances at it and chuckles. “Quite nicely,” she replies as she stands. Kara finds herself just smiling at her, and Lena does the same, and it’s only moments later that Kara realizes they are just standing and looking at each other. Lena seems to realize the same and she laughs.

“Sorry. It’s just- just a little weird,” she waves her hands, “I know I’ve seen you hours ago but I just…”

Kara lowers the picnic basket to the floor and steps closer to Lena with a little smile. “Just what?”

Lena chews on her lip for a moment, then sighs and ducks her head before looking up at Kara. “I just miss you already,” she admits, her voice shy.

They stand across each other now; there is a certain familiarity to it, and Kara vaguely remembers the many times they had stood like this, except now, there is an air of bashful delight between them, though Kara isn’t entirely sure if that was new or it has been there the whole time and they have only acknowledged it recently.

By Rao’s grace here they are though, however long the road they took—literally and otherwise. Tilting her head, Kara smiles fondly. “Is it less weird if I say I miss you too?”

The raven-haired woman chuckles. They lock gazes for a moment, but Lena licks her lips and Kara can’t help but look down, sharp eyes following the movement.

“And if I say I can’t stop thinking about kissing you again?” Lena asks.

It’s Kara’s turn to laugh. She steps closer to Lena with a small dreamy sigh and stops a mere few inches from the raven-haired woman. “Is that why you’re already working?” She asks with a bob of her head towards Lena’s desk.

“You’re supposed to say you can’t stop thinking about kissing me either,” Lena counters with a pout.

Kara laughs again. Her hands, craving the softness of Lena’s skin, itch with the need to touch but she finally gives in, shuffling closer to cradle Lena’s cheeks with both her hands. Lena’s pout melts, her lips part, and Kara hears the hitch in her heartbeat as if that mere touch has taken her breath away.

“Can I redo that?” Kara whispers. She catches Lena’s gaze flicker down to her lips and the blonde smiles when she feels Lena’s hands on her wrists, her touch soft and hopeful. Lena is only barely able to nod. “I can’t stop thinking about kissing you either,” Kara says, smile audible in her voice.

Lena giggles softly and nudges her forehead against Kara’s. She traces mindless shapes on the blonde’s wrists and Kara closes her eyes. She doesn’t know who moves in first, but she does register the gentle press of lips against hers. It’s so different from their first kiss in the car; that had been soft and tentative but at the same time _desperate,_ and Kara had felt disarming  relief and sheer joy from that one kiss. This time, though everything is still as soft—Lena’s lips, Lena’s touch, Lena, Lena, _Lena_ —it feels different altogether, like Lena is whispering a promise into Kara’s very soul, and Kara sighs in surrender and tilts her head at the slightest, melting into the kiss as Lena’s right hand moves from her wrist to press against her chest, right above Kara’s pounding heartbeat.

It feels like coming home, somehow, and Kara sinks right into Lena’s curious touch.

They part after a while, Kara’s lungs burning with the need for air and her cheeks flushed with an altogether different need. She licks her lips and wonders if this is what happiness tastes like, or if it’s Lena’s chapstick.

Laughter bubbles from Lena’s lips and Kara can’t help but smile at the sound.

“What’s so funny?” She asks.

Lena shrugs, but her joy hangs in the air. She nuzzles Kara’s nose, then there are hands cradling Kara’s face like she is made of glass and not wholly invincible. She meets Kara’s gaze, and there is softness in those piercing green eyes that makes the Kryptonian’s heart thunder in her chest. Lena presses a fleeting kiss on Kara’s lips before pulling back again. “I love you,” she whispers.

Kara forgets to breathe altogether.

“You don’t have to say it back,” Lena says quickly, voice vulnerable and eyes wide and understanding but there’s trust and Rao, _love_ —the softness in her eyes is affection for Kara alone and Kara wants to say something but Lena traces her lips with her thumb for a moment of her silence. “I know we haven’t talked about it,” she continues with a nervous chuckle, “about us, _this,_ what _this_ makes us, but honestly, Kara, I’m just _so_ happy you’re even kissing me back.” She shakes her head lightly and Kara wants to say something but she doesn’t quite know what to say.

_I love you too._

“I just want to- I don’t know, god,” Lena chuckles again, eyes watery now, and Kara can’t help but just _smile_ at her. “All that time together made me realize it. I don’t think I quite believe I have you here with me right now like this, and my stupid brain just thought saying it out loud would be some magic word that’ll wake me up from some dream, or—” Lena stops abruptly and shrugs. “Or if it’ll wake _you_ up or maybe scare you away so I can sulk already—”

“I’m staying,” Kara finally interrupts, unable to stop herself. A part of her aches at the thought of Lena thinking all of this was a mere dream, but she _is_ here, isn’t she? She holds Lena by the wrists and meets her gaze with every ounce of sincerity she can muster. “I’m staying, Lena,” she promises. “This isn’t a dream or something borne out of us spending too much time within each other’s close proximity or something.” Kara quirks up her lips at that.

Lena laughs, presses her forehead against Kara’s. “God. I’m sorry, I—”

“Don’t apologize,” Kara softly pleads. Instead, she leans in to kiss Lena’s fears away, whispers _I got you_ against her lips, and Lena quietly surrenders to her. When she pulls away, Kara is content to hold her in her arms.

“What’s that?” Lena asks after a while.

Kara replies with a hum against Lena’s temple. “What’s what?”

“That,” Lena says, then pulls away to slightly to point behind Kara. The blonde turns to look and realizes Lena meant the picnic basket Kara had brought.

“Oh!” She laughs, slapping her forehead. “Rao, I almost forgot. It’s food. And Tangled. I mean, I brought a flash drive with Tangled, the Disney movie I promised?” She pushes her glasses, jitters returning full force at the realization that all this kissing aside, she still had a date to take Lena to. Or at least, the closest she can pull off as a date with limited time and her limited resources. “I don’t really have an idea what we’d do because, well, most of my ideas involve flying you to really romantic places and I- I just—”

“Kara,” Lena says softly, gentle hand on Kara’s forearm. “Calm down. I don’t care what we do, honestly. As long as you’re here.”

Kara lets out a relieved smile at that. “Okay. Good. Come on.”

Lena furrows her eyebrows. “Come where?”

Kara moves to pick up the picnic basket from the floor and gestures to Lena’s balcony. “There. It’s more romantic under the stars?”

The CEO stares at Kara for a moment, then she smiles widely. “You don’t need to sweep me off my feet when I’ve already fallen flat on my face, Kara.”

There are butterflies in the blonde’s stomach again but she just shrugs, keeps the words that threatened to spill to herself. “Come on,” she offers again, and extends her hand for Lena to take. The raven-haired woman chuckles bashfully but reaches out for Kara, and the heroine grins as she walks side by side with Lena.

When the reach the balcony, Kara sets up their little picnic: She takes out the red-and-white checkered picnic blanket she had managed to scour in her apartment and lays it on the rather spacious balcony floor, then takes the wine and glasses she had brought. She also takes out various containers of different food—Kara had made sure to get fra diavolo, baked potatoes, and the weird eggplant lasagna Lena had tried and adored when they were in New York. Lena laughs when Kara pulls out a mason jar of Swedish Fish and a paper box of McDonald’s chicken nuggets.

“You are the worst,” Lena says.

Kara grins and shrugs. “Yeah, but you love me.”

Lena’s smile turns fond. “I do.”

_I love you, too._

Kara quickly leaves and returns in a second, then sits on the blanket with Lena’s laptop. “Yes, yes, I saved your files,” she says before Lena can say anything, then she is setting up the movie and patting the space beside her for Lena to sit.

“My lady,” Kara says playfully. “Dinner and a movie?”

Lena beams. “Thought you’d never ask.”

The woman settles beside Kara, who hands Lena a fork and tells her to dig in. Lena accepts the fork but reaches for the wine bottle instead, and Kara rolls her eyes playfully but pops the cork for her and pours her half a glass. Lena thanks her with a giggle. They eat while watching _Tangled_. Kara tries her best to keep quiet during the song numbers; Lena is amused by this fact and she teases Kara for it.

Still, Lena hums along with the song during the lantern scene, having familiarized herself with it after the blonde had played it a couple of times in the car. Kara notices and turns to her and when she does, Lena meets her gaze. Lena sings _now that I see you_ softly, and Kara could have burst right then and there with the jitters and butterflies in her belly but thankfully she just blushes.

“I really love that song,” Lena says when it’s over, and Kara only nods. Lena kisses the blush on her cheeks and leans against Kara—at least until the part where Eugene meets the evil brothers and Rapunzel thinks he betrayed her, only for her mother to swoop in and take her home _._

“Wow, is that my mom?” Lena deadpans, making Kara snort.

Lena denies she cried when the movie ends. Kara just nods and agrees even if she smiles knowingly. “Did you like it though?” She asks.

Lena bites her lip but nods. “I get the charm,” she says, quirking an eyebrow when Kara closes the laptop. “No next movie for my Disneyfication?” She adds with a smirk.

Kara laughs. “I mean, I have all my Disney movies there if you’d like. I just thought you’d want to… You know.” She shrugs. “Talk, I guess.”

“Talk,” Lena echoes. She chuckles softly at that. Kara is all too ready to take the offer back; she knows how hard it is for Lena to open up, and maybe she shouldn’t have asked, but before she could backtrack Lena is smiling at her. “Tell me about Krypton?”

Kara can only stare at her for a moment. Krypton is a part of Kara that not many people know about. Her identity as Kara Zor-El holds these memories and stories of Krypton, carries her never-ending grief, and the fact that Lena is asking makes Kara feel less of it.

 _I love you too,_ her heart screams, but she manages to swallow the words and instead, nods.

“What do you want to know?” Kara asks.

Lena leans against her shoulder. “Everything you’re willing to share, darling.”

 _I love you too,_ Kara’s heart screams, but all she does is wrap an arm around Lena’s frame, pulling her closer to her. Lena sighs and mumbles _you’re so warm._ Kara kisses her temple and tells her of Krypton: tells her of the peaceful chaos in Argo City, of Krypton’s headstrong, brilliant people, of their robotic assistants they call Kelex and the one Kara called Orion. She argues with Lena about the creation of such on Earth and kisses her rebuttal out of her mind. She tells Lena how different the stars they can see from the apartment’s balcony are to the constellations she once saw at the summit of the Jewel Mountains, tells her of the emptiness she feels when she realizes she can never see those stars that way again. Kara tells her of the tales of the Fire Falls, how beautiful Rao’s reflection is on the Cogo Sea, and how angry at her god she was back then, sent away from a dying planet alone to care for a cousin only to lose her sole reason for being saved.

Kara tells Lena of her friends in Krypton, who died without ever realizing their dreams or how it feels to feel like _this,_ like you could conquer the world all because the love of your life listens to you like you hold all the answers to all the questions in the universe. She tells Lena of the great House of El, of how Kara would need an entire day or two just  to tell her of its stories. Lena smiles, sad and understanding all the same, and puts her hand on Kara’s on her shoulder, threads their fingers together, and teases that she would ask Jess to clear her schedule.

 _I love you too,_ Kara thinks, and tells Lena about her mother and her father and how they tried to do the right thing only for them to turn out otherwise, how she wishes she knew better when she was younger, how she _hopes_ what she is doing on Earth is enough to do something _right_ , if only to offer some sort of justice to stardust _._ She doesn’t quite realize she is crying until she feels Lena’s hand on her cheek, wiping away tears with a gentle caress of her thumb.

“I’m sorry,” Lena whispers.

Kara smiles sadly. “I miss Krypton,” she admits. The midnight sky is darker now, giving the two a better view of the stars above them. Kara looks up with a sigh.  “I miss them every day, and there had been dark days when I—” She shakes her head. “ But Earth is my home now. I still think of them every day, but I’m- I’d like to think I’m okay now.”

“I hope you know how strong you are,” Lena says. She tilts her head and kisses Kara’s knuckles, reverence in the softest of her movements. “Girl of steel or otherwise.”

A light chuckle escapes Kara at that. She noses Lena’s temple and murmurs _thank you._ This is not the _talk_ she had pictured, but she feels better about everything anyway, like her grief had diminished somehow; it proves further how Lena is good for her, good _to_ her. Kara sighs with the weight of relief and gratitude and leans down to kiss Lena’s shoulder.

 _I love you,_ she thinks, meeting Lena’s soft gaze. They fall into comfortable silence, as if Lena is letting her collect her bearings, but her mere presence is enough to relieve her aching soul. Lena shifts and nestles against Kara’s neck. The blonde feels her warmth against her skin, familiar and new at the same time. Kara holds her tightly and Lena slips her arm behind Kara, holding her just as close.

“Tell me,” Lena begins, and Kara can feel the purr of her words against her frame, “how does flying feel?”

Kara laughs lightly and shrugs. “Like freedom?” She offers. “I don’t really know how to describe it, Lee. It’s just—I couldn’t fly in Krypton. And then when I got here, I discovered I _could,_ but I can’t, because I had to keep it a secret. For several years.” She bites her lip. Lena squeezes her side and she smiles wistfully. “The first time I had to fly again—after the whole saving Alex thing, of course—it felt… Really freeing, you know? There’s just nothing like feeling the wind on your skin and being able to touch the clouds, Lena.” She meets the woman’s gaze. Lena is soaking in on her every word, and Kara practically breathes out the remaining air in her lungs when she continues. “You’re untethered and somehow everything feels like a dream.”

Lena replies with a thoughtful sound. “I feel like that with you though,” she says softly, then snorts. “God, that must sound really cheesy.”

Kara chuckles and presses her forehead against Lena’s temple, amused. “A little, but… I don’t know.” She shrugs. “You make me feel like that too.”

“Are you just saying that?”

“No, silly.” Kara sighs and pulls back, making Lena look at her. “And it’s not only because we’ve spent the last several weeks together and not just because I’ve missed you so much even if I saw you hours ago.”

“I’m still going to say no if you invite me flying though,” Lena says, closing their distance and curling against Kara’s frame once more. “No matter how great you say it feels.”

Kara just smiles. “Take all the time you need, Lena,” she whispers. “I’m staying anyway.”

“Is that a promise?” Lena asks with a poke of Kara’s belly. It doesn’t hurt, but Kara does exaggerate her reaction and rubs the spot.

“Must you stab me?” She pouts. Lena raises an eyebrow.

“One of these days you’ll be begging for these fingers to _stab_ you,” she counters. Kara snorts painfully at that. Lena laughs, all joy and warmth, and Kara barely remembers forever ago when she had nursed a misplaced heart because the only thing she can think of is how Lena has been here, all this time.

“I love you,” Kara finally says, letting the words burst from her heart to her lips brushing against Lena’s temple. Lena pulls away quickly to look at Kara, and the blonde meets her gaze with a smile that promised a long road ahead of them that will be traveled together, hand in hand. “I love you, too,” she repeats, cups Lena’s cheeks with tenderness and Lena responds with a kiss that echoes the words Kara had just uttered.

_I love you._

Lena holds her close even when they pull away from the kiss, keeps her eyes closed like she is afraid she’ll wake up from a dream. Kara smiles at her. “Open your eyes, Lena,” she whispers, and when Lena finally does, she speaks again. “Yes. It is a promise.”  

;

 _camerado, i give you my hand!_ _  
_ _i give you my love more precious than money,_ _  
_ _i give you myself before preaching or law;_ _  
_ _will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?_   
_shall we stick by each other as long as we live?_

song of the open road, walt whitman


End file.
